Micheál Martin has hit out at a Fine Gael TD for taking a case over falling off a swing claiming it "flies in the face" of efforts to bring down insurance premiums.
It has been reported that Maria Bailey is taking a personal injury legal action against The Dean Hotel on Dublin's Harcourt Street over injuries she alleges she suffered in a fall.
In Circuit Court proceedings she has accused the hotel of negligence or breach of duty as the swing was unsupervised when she fell off it in 2015.
Fianna Fáil leader Mr Martin said the action would impact on claim culture and suggested that people would not be able to trust politicians to tackle rising insurance premiums if they are making claims themselves.
"I could never understand people claiming left right and centre when you go through the ordinary things of life if I am honest about it.
This seems to fly in the face of everything that we are trying to do to bring insurance costs down.
Mr Martin claimed that many SMEs are facing closure because of significant jumps in insurance costs.
He added: "I played sport, when we were young kids in the inner-city of Cork. Fellows broke ankles and hands but no one ever thought of lodging a claim against anybody and I think there is a limit to what people should be doing.
I think does this impacts on the claim culture - who are they in Leinster House to be complaining about a claim culture if they are doing it themselves?"
Separately Mr Martin hit out at the Government for overspending in many areas, but claimed many promises are purely for electoral reasons.
"People are dizzy with the billions that are being spread around in the last five to six weeks in terms of broadband and housing and so on.
"Anything that is moving basically, money is being thrown at it with days to go [to the election].
"I have no doubt that once these elections are over, expect to see a significant degree of sobering up in terms of a lot of the commitments that have been made," he said.
"The Government has failed on housing and has failed on health and continues to fail in my view," said Mr Martin.